What I hope Cal has learned, or at least thought about, is that when you have a special contributor to any sports program at Cal, which I think Tosh was, who was receiving national recognition in the media for his recruiting efforts for Cal, you figure out how to financially reward him accordingly, especially in reaction to another school trying to poach him from Cal. If the aftermath of what happened after Tosh left, in terms of our football recruiting ranking, doesn’t make Cal focus on financially rewarding special excellence in its sports programs, nothing will. I still maintain that putting the best talent on the sports field is one of the most important elements in having a great football program.

But I am still frustrated about how excited I was to have a top 10 recruiting ranking and have it all fall apart after Tosh left. Perhaps Tosh’s relationship with Tedford wasn’t the best — I have no knowledge of that. But I think they could have worked it out if Cal had countered and even exceeded Washington’s offer.

If anything that has been learned from this whole episode, it is that it is possible that one guy can have an extreme effect on how well recruiting goes and that the ability to recruit really well is under appreciated in terms of its importance to a football program. I believe Tosh was unique in the results he produced in bringing in great recruits for many years for Cal and was not being paid commensurate with the importance of his contributions to Cal football. Cal has suffered from his absence and, even if Dykes does well in recruiting, I believe will continue to suffer to some extent.

We have a new coach who managed to recruit pretty well given his short time on the job and lack of west coast ties. Lets see what SD can do with the guys he’s got. I am optimistic about our prospects.

BTW, even if Tedford did not agree to a salary cut to keep Tosh, which preferably would have been kept confidential, as letting that be known would have been a signal that perhaps Tedford was on the way out, which other schools would have taken advantage of in recruiting) even asking Tedford for a pay cut would have sent a message that a lot of people were not happy with the way the Cal football program was going at that time and that it was time to turn things around.

I’m not saying asking for a cut in salary and getting it would have not been without potential problems (like other assistants expecting some sort of raise also), but I read there could have been a problem raising money to keep Tosh on board, so getting part of all of it from Tedford would have been one way to raise the necessary funds ,though it seems $220k or even $300k is not a great sum of money. I’d be surprise if private donors, who understood the great benefits Tosh had brought to the program and knew he would continue to do so, would have pitched in financially to keep Tosh. I don’t know if they were asked by Sandy and/or others to do that, but I think that should have been done. All I know is that our recruiting has gone down and Washington’s has gone up since Tosh left for Washington. I believe that is almost entirely due to Tosh’s departure. Hopefully Sonny and his La. Tech gang are such great recruiters we won’t miss Tosh’s contribution in the future. But I strongly suspect Tosh would have made our future recruiting classes even stronger, and if Sonny and his assistants did a decent job in recruiting, we would have at least a top 20 recruiting class every year.

I’m a bit sick of this topic, and would just as soon drop it, but I as long as people as me questions, or challenge me on my opinion on this, I know I will have to respond.

Never said anything about Tedford gladly accepting a pay cut. I do think he would have considered it. If he didn’t accept the pay cut, there were other ways of raising money to keep Tosh.

Didn’t say my progression would necessarily or automatically follow. Just that better talent makes it more likely to have a better team, leading it more likely to generate more money. Nothing is certain,for sure, but I’m sure you would agree that better football talent makes it more likely to have a better team.

Agree we should move on with regard to Tosh-Gate. But it came up in Tedford’s interview, which reminded of my frustration on this issue. I think for about $200,000 or a bit more we could have kept Tosh. Would have been money well spent, in my opinion, leading, as I have explained, to a good chance of football gate receipts. Having great football talent makes it much easier to have a great football team. I’m sure Juancho agrees.